


Change My Mind

by harrietelizabeth



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Drabble, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Narry (mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 18:31:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5753788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harrietelizabeth/pseuds/harrietelizabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn gives Liam a challenge, but ends up cheating at his own game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change My Mind

**Author's Note:**

> I just wrote this for a [writing challenge](mrsofficerbylilwayne.tumblr.com/tagged/writing-challenge) I'm doing, but I kind of really like it ?? so I thought I'd post it in case anyone else likes it. If not, that's ok. If yes, yay! Come and let me know on [tumblr](mrsoffcerbylilwayne.tumblr.com) :)

“We can’t _both_ be going alone,” Zayn whines. 

They’re both sitting in Liam’s room, pretending to be doing homework but actually throwing Skittles at each other’s mouths (mostly missing) and talking about the upcoming school dance that weekend. Neither of them has a date, though - Zayn broke up with Perrie a few weeks ago, and Liam hasn’t dated anyone since....well, ever. Since he and Zayn both started at the same high school three years ago, paired together alphabetically (the fact that there were no other kids with a name beginning with ‘P’ except for Liam was, for the two of them, a strange but happy coincidence). 

Now they’re inseparable, spending every afternoon at one of their houses, giving their parents a line about how much homework they have and how hard it is doing their GCSE’s, but preferring to listen to music through Zayn’s headphones, pore over their shared collection of tattered comic books or just lie on their backs on the floor and talk. Zayn’s the first real best friend Liam’s ever had - before he got to high school, he’d mostly kept to himself, not fitting in with the other kids who teased him for his curly hair and the way he could sing a higher falsetto than some of the girls. 

But that had all changed when he met Zayn. He was quiet too, like Liam, and liked all of the same things as him that Liam had always thought were stupid and dorky. There was something else about Zayn, though, something that made Liam feel more alive when he was around. Like Zayn brought more oxygen and light into the room whenever he walked in, like Liam was only half-awake when his friend wasn’t around. Which is why Liam liked having him around as much as possible. 

“Liam, you’re zoning out again,” Zayn complains from the bed where he’s lying against Liam’s pillows, the ones with the yellow Batman symbol on them, his hands folded behind his head. There’s an unopened Geometry textbook lying next to his knee.

“Sorry,” Liam says. “What did you say?”

“I said, we need to find a date for the dance.” Liam wrinkles his nose.

“Who would want to go with me?” 

“Like, half the girls at school,” Zayn says, rolling his eyes. “Perrie told me Jade really fancies you, before we broke up,” he adds casually, and Liam blushes, throwing his own Geometry book at the bed, where it narrowly misses Zayn’s head and crashes onto the nightstand instead.

“Bet she doesn’t,” Liam says, because Jade is way out of his league. All the girls at school are. Besides, he’s not sure he’d really want to take one of them anyway. He liked hanging out with them all, Jade and her friends Jesy and Leigh-Anne, when Zayn and Perrie were dating, but he couldn’t imagine doing the things that Zayn and Perrie did - holding hands, kissing against her locker, exchanging cards on anniversaries and birthdays and Valentines days. 

“She does, mate, trust me. i’m the one who’s got a problem.” 

Liam scoffs aloud at that, because if there’s anyone who doesn’t have a problem with girls, it’s Zayn. He’s oblivious, but Liam walks the corridors with him every day, and he doesn’t miss the stares that follow them (Zayn, that is), the whispers that follow him, the way girls swoon over his dark eyes, his pouty lips, his quiff that somehow looks perfect every day, even though he gets up half an hour later than Liam does and always has to run for the bus. 

“No, really,” Zayn says, his voice serious. “I’m damaged goods. Everyone probably hates me since I broke up with Perrie.” 

Liam still doesn’t know why they broke up, and he’s not sure he quite knows why he hasn’t asked, either. He always preferred to stay out of their relationship, feeling awkward and embarrassed when Perrie came to hang out with them. It's not that Liam didn’t like her; she's lovely, and made Zayn laugh and can sing way better than Liam can, but he felt uncomfortable around her for some reason, and Zayn never seemed to push Liam to spend a lot of time around her, keeping his friendship with Liam separate from his relationship. Which is how it should be, Liam told himself, trying not to think of the way that Louis always hangs around with Harry and Niall and it never seems awkward.

“They don’t hate you,” Liam says, because he can’t imagine anyone ever hating Zayn. Zayn sighs dramatically. 

“Whatever, I’m not going to the dance by myself. And neither are you,” he says, lifting his head off the pillow to give Liam a stern look. Then his facial expression shifts, and Liam recognises that look - Zayn gets it when he and Louis are plotting a prank on Harry and Niall, or when he’s about to coerce Liam into something they shouldn’t be doing, like taking beers out of Liam’s dads fridge and going to the park to drink them until their stomachs hurt and Zayn goes giggly and warm and soft against Liam’s shoulder.

“No,” Liam says flatly.

“I didn’t even ask!” Zayn protests. 

“No, but you were about to. And the answer is no.” 

Zayn pouts, which is really just unfair. His bottom lip is so plump and red, and his eyes actually glisten, like a cartoon or something, and his eyebrows slant down across his forehead. Liam is almost always powerless to resist Zayn’s puppy dog face, so he looks down at his hands, willing his cheeks not to go red.

“Knew you couldn’t handle a dare,” Zayn says smugly, and Liam scowls at him. 

“It’s not because I can’t handle it. It’s because all your ideas always get us in trouble.” Like when his dad had found out about the beers and had forbidden Liam from having Zayn over, or going to his house, for a week. It had been the worst week of Liam’s life. 

“That was one time -”

“And the time with the canary.” Zayn giggles.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. But this time is different! There are no animals and no alcohol involved.” Liam raises an eyebrow.

“Ok.....”

“We have a competition to see who can find a date for the dance first,” Zayn says, sitting up in his excitement. Liam makes a face. It doesn’t sound very fun to him.

“What’s in it for me?” Liam asks. 

“You don’t have to go to the dance alone like a total loser!” Zayn says, and Liam flinches a little. It reminds him of his old school, of being called a loser and always being alone at lunchtimes, in class, after school. It must show on his face, because Zayn says “shit” and climbs off the bed to sit next to Liam on the floor.

“Sorry, Li, I didn’t mean it like that. You wouldn’t be a loser, it’d be fine, really, no one would even care. Heaps of people will be going alone. But - it’ll be fun finding dates, yeah? It’ll be, like, a challenge, yeah? The first person to find a date gets to pick what movie we watch for, like, a month.” 

Liam can’t stay upset with Zayn when he’s so eager, and he’s sitting right next to Liam with his bright, sincere eyes and his wandering fingers that start picking at the fraying denim on the knee of Liam’s jeans. 

“Fine,” he says. “I’m in.” 

Zayn beams at him, and Liam thinks that whatever humiliation he endures this week, it was worth it to see Zayn smile like that.

//

Liam forgets about their challenge until Wednesday, caught up in schoolwork and football practice and Zayn. He's the ever-present energy in Liam's life that keeps him grounded, that reminds him he’s not the person he used to be, who was too shy to speak to anyone, who had no one to eat lunch with or invite to his birthdays. Since he met Zayn, though, he's joined the football, with Louis and Niall, cut his hair (he’d hated the buzzcut at first, but it’s much better now that it’s grown back in a bit) and made more friends - Louis and Harry and Niall and Danny and Ant.

So when Zayn passes him a note in English on Wednesday morning, reading “asked any1 yet?”, Liam panics a little. He scribbles back, “no :( u?” and sees Zayn shake his head. Liam relaxes a fraction; if Zayn hasn’t asked anyone yet, he still has a chance. Maybe neither of them will ever get up the nerve to ask someone, and then they’ll decide not to go and just eat ice cream and watch Star Wars instead or something. Or maybe they’ll go toge -

“im gonna ask chloe at lunch,” the note says. “u should ask jade !!” The sick feeling returns to Liam’s stomach. He doesn’t even know how to approach Jade, let alone ask her to the dance. She probably already has someone to go with anyway, Josh or someone else from the footy team, or some cool boyfriend that goes to uni or something. And she’s always with her friends, who kind of intimidate Liam (especially Jesy), and he doesn’t know how he’d get her alone without it being awkward. He’s pretty sure they even go to the bathroom together. He’s totally screwed.

He shoots Zayn a desperate look, but his friend just shakes his head, then turns back to face the front of the room, where their teacher is waxing lyrical about symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird. Liam is totally, utterly screwed.

//

At lunchtime, Liam silently begs Zayn not to bring up the challenge, but the powers that be must be too busy to hear his pleas, because just when Liam thinks he’s got away with it, Louis comes and sits with them.

“Got a date for Saturday, lads?” he asks. 

Liam wants to kick him.

“Not yet,” Zayn says. “Gonna ask Chloe after P.E. Liam’s gonna ask Jade.” 

Now Liam wants to kick Zayn. 

“Ooooooh, nice choices lads.”

“What about you, just gonna tag along with Hazza and Niall?” Zayn asks, smirking. Louis looks highly offended.

“i’ll have you know I just asked Eleanor in Biology, and she said yes.” Zayn hi-fives him, and Liam gives Louis a congratulatory pat on the back. But he feels ill, like his lunch is about to come up. It gets worse, though.

“Oh look, Li, there’s Jade and Perrie now,” he says. 

Liam tries to hide behind Louis, but the other boy’s about half the size of him, so it doesn’t have the desired effect. Especially not when Zayn starts calling out to the girls and waving them over. Liam seriously questions why Zayn is his best friend. 

“Hey boys,” Perrie says, and Jade smiles at them. She really is gorgeous, Liam thinks, but that only makes it worse. There’s no way in hell she’ll ever go to the dance with him.

“Liam wanted to ask you something,” Louis says, and god Liam really hates absolutely everyone. He wants to disappear into the ground, but Jade and Perrie are looking at him apprehensively. His mouth feels dry, like he’s swallowed sand. 

“Um, yeah,” he says, racking his brain for something clever to say. “Did we, um, did we have any homework for Chemistry, Jade? I wasn’t, um, wasn’t really paying attention.” 

Great. Really well done, Liam.

Jade frowns slightly and shakes her head. “No. Just the test next Thursday,” she says, her voice somewhat flat. 

“Right. Okay, thanks,” he says, wishing for death. The girls walk away, and Zayn and Louis turn to stare at him incredulously.

“What the fuck?” Louis asks, and Zayn lets out a snort of laughter.

“Why didn’t you ask her?” Zayn says, but he’s not really mocking Liam. 

“I don’t know,” Liam says miserably. “There’s no way she’d ever say yes anyway.” 

“Didn’t you see her face when you asked her that bullshit about Chemistry? You look like you told her her dog had died or something. Think you just broke her heart, mate,” Louis says, but Liam is barely listening. He’s never going to be able to look at Jade again, let alone ask her out. He’s doomed to going to the dance alone, and watching all of Zayn’s favourite movies for the next month. Not that he thinks he’d mind the second part too much. 

“Never mind Li, there’s still two more days to ask someone,” Zayn says, a consolatory hand on his shoulder. Liam takes little comfort from it. 

//

When they get to Zayn’s house that afternoon, Liam has conceded defeat in their challenge. He’s ready to hear about Zayn asking Chloe to the dance, how she probably swooned and said of course, and how they’ve already planned their colour-coordinated outfits. Not that he thinks Zayn would be into that kind of thing, but Chloe probably would. 

“So did she say yes?” Liam asks somewhat resignedly as they dump their school bags on Zayn’s floor and settle onto the bed, shucking off their shoes and loosening their ties.

“Who?” Zayn asks distractedly. 

“Chloe,” Liam says like it’s obvious. He thought it _was_ obvious. 

“Oh, her,” Zayn says. “Na, didn’t ask her. She disappeared right after P.E. Wanna play some Mario?” 

Liam looks at him a little closer, but Zayn looks normal. Maybe Liam’s hoping to see something there, a hint of why Zayn keeps putting off asking Chloe, but he doesn’t know why. So he nods, taking the controller from Zayn and settling back onto the pillows. He wishes everything was this simple - lying next to Zayn, laughing over the game and ribbing each other between races. Rushing through their English homework when Zayn’s mum comes up and nags them, then talking about what they’re going to do after they finish school until Liam’s mum calls and tells him he has to come home. It feels so easy with Zayn, not like the pressure Liam feels around Jade or any of her friends. He doesn’t have to pretend to be someone he’s not - Zayn liked him when he was shy and quiet and nerdy, so Liam doesn’t worry that he’s not cool enough or funny enough or smart enough for Zayn, because even though Zayn’s a million times cooler and funnier and smarter than Liam, he never makes Liam feel like he’s lesser for it. 

Liam falls asleep that night thinking of what it would be like if he and Zayn could just go to the dance together - just as friends, he tells himself - without worrying about the stupid challenge. But Zayn obviously wants to take someone else, wants to take a girl, and why shouldn’t he? He could have his pick of anyone at school, so there’s no reason he’d want to go with Liam, with his plain brown eyes and funny birthmark and his squishy nose. Liam rolls over and wills himself not to think about dancing with a girl on Saturday, how strange it would feel with his hands on her waist, their bodies pressed together. As he begins to drift off, though, the girl in his imagination turns into someone else, someone with eyes like caramel and raven-dark hair and a wicked smile. 

//

Zayn still hasn’t let up on the challenge by Friday, and he’s become more insistent about it since, he tells Liam, it’s their last chance. They agree to ask two girls who are friends, so it won’t be as intimidating trying to get the girls alone, and they can do it together. Zayn’s decided he wants to ask Danielle, and Liam’s going to ask her friend Sophia. Usually, mornings at school drag, and Liam can’t wait for lunch by the time it finally arrives, but today the classes seem to be half their usual length, and Liam is willing the hands on the clock to slow down so that lunchtime never comes. 

But it does, inevitably, and Liam goes to meet Zayn at his locker so that they can go and find Danielle and Sophia. But Zayn isn’t there, and Liam breathes a small sigh of relief. Every minute he can put off before he has to say the words “do you want to go to the dance with me” to a girl like Sophia, with her pretty brown eyes and long shiny hair, is a minute he goes without being humiliated. 

Ten minutes pass and Zayn still hasn’t shown up, so Liam pulls out his phone and texts him, ‘where r u?’ 

‘be there in a min, sorry :/’ Zayn replies, so Liam starts a game of Flappy Bird on his phone while he waits. He jumps when he feels a tap on his shoulder and whirls around, relaxing when he sees it’s only Zayn. 

“What took you so long?” he asks, even though he doesn’t mind at all.

“I was getting, um, these,” Zayn says, producing a bunch of flowers from seemingly nowhere. Liam’s stomach drops. Zayn’s going to ask Danielle with flowers, and he’s got absolutely nothing to give Sophia. He’s going to look like a proper dick. He’s sort of mad at Zayn for getting the flowers without telling Liam, for upstaging him, but then, he remembers, they are in a competition to see who can get a date first. Zayn’s just playing the game better than Liam is.

“Shit, I should’ve thought of something like that,” Liam mumbles, before he catches Zayn’s eye and sees something there, like a bird taking flight with a flap of its wings. 

“They’re not for Danielle,” Zayn says, and Liam realises he sounds a little out of breath. He probably had to run to the florist, Liam thinks. There’s one a couple of blocks away from school, next to Sainsbury’s, where Liam’s mum sometimes -

“They’re for you,” Zayn says quickly, and Liam’s brain stops functioning. He forgets where he’s standing, he forgets what day of the week it is, he’s pretty sure he forgets his own name for a minute. He takes in Zayn, with a flush high on his cheeks from rushing to get back to school, holding out a bunch of flowers to Liam with a worried twist of his lips. 

“Wh-” Liam begins, but Zayn interrupts him.

“Will you go to the dance with me?” Liam feels like he’s been hit over the head. With something heavy. Is Zayn practicing on him for a girl? Is he pranking Liam? He looks around for Louis with his phone out, recording, but the hallway’s empty, everyone outside at lunch. When Liam realises Zayn’s being serious, his heart starts pounding so loud he can hear it in his own hears, the thudding of blood in his veins. 

“Like......as friends?” he ventures, still not sure this is really happening or how to feel about it. He thinks about his half-dream last night, about dancing with Zayn, chest to chest, and his heart beats harder. 

“No,” Zayn says, his voice quiet suddenly. “Not as friends.” Liam can smell the flowers, their sweet scent clouding the air between them. There’s too much air between them, he thinks blindly, and takes a step towards Zayn, breathing in his smell through the flowers, mint chewing gum and hairspray and Gucci cologne. He thinks about the countless nights he’s spent in Zayn’s room or the afternoons on Liam’s bed, the two of them laughing until they can’t breathe or sitting in comfortable silence, or talking until one of their parents has to physically drag them out of the room to drive them home. He thinks about how easy it is with Zayn, how comfortable he makes Liam feel, even now, with a bunch of flowers separating them and a question hanging in the air between them. Liam realises he doesn’t really have to think about his answer.

“Yeah,” he says, and realises he sounds breathless too, even though he’s been standing in the same spot for fifteen minutes. “Yeah, I wanna go with you, as not-friends,” Liam says, then laughs at how that sounds. Zayn laughs too, and Liam thinks it might be his favourite sound in the world. 

“Hold these,” Zayn says, and Liam barely has time to take the unwieldy flowers from Zayn before he’s leaning in and pressing his lips to Liam, then pulling away quickly, as if he’s worried about being caught.

“Hey,” Liam says, “come back.” 

Zayn does, and kisses him until the back of Liam’s head hits the locker behind him, and their bodies are finally pressed together in the way that Liam realises he’s wanted them to be for almost as long as he’s known Zayn. Zayn’s lips are plump like Liam knew they would be, and he tastes like the mint gum he always chews ever since he started smoking cigarettes on the walk home from school every day. Liam’s always thought they were the same height but he has to bend his neck a little to fit his lips against Zayn’s, and he has to hold the flowers out to his side so that he can pull Zayn flush against him. It feels different than Liam expected, but somehow better at the same time. They pull away at the same time, both grinning, and Liam feels a little dizzy when he realises the gravity of all this. Then he remembers why he was at Zayn’s locker in the first place.

“Why did you suggest the challenge if you were going to ask me?” Liam asks.

“I didn’t know I was going to ask you until literally an hour ago. I was going to ask Chloe, but for some reason I kept putting it off. Then I was going to ask Danielle, but then I imagined being with her at the dance, and you being with Sophia, and it didn’t feel right. I didn’t know why, so I talked to Harry about it, and he said that’s how he felt with Niall. When he was trying to set Niall up with Eleanor, he kept feeling angry and he didn’t know why. Then he just, I don’t know, realised, so he told Niall and, well, you know the rest.” 

Liam’s ears are ringing. He’s not sure he’s processed this much information in his entire life.

“So Harry told me to just tell you. But I didn’t think I could just tell you, so I got the flowers because I thought they’d make it seem more genuine. It was probably stupid, but like.....I really like you Liam. I don’t know why I didn’t realise it earlier.” 

Liam feels like he’s immersed in a warm bath, like nothing can cut through the relief and warmth and joy he feels in this instant. 

“I think I realised a while ago, I just didn’t want to admit it to myself because I thought you didn’t feel the same,” Liam says, finally giving voice to the nagging suspicions that have been plaguing him for the last few months. Zayn just smiles at him, and Liam wants to wrap himself in that smile and live in it like his favourite hoodie.

“I’m glad we both realised it,” Zayn says softly, straightening the knot in Liam’s tie then tracing a finger over the birthmark on his neck.

“And this way, neither of us loses the challenge,” Liam says, the relief of not having to ask anyone out still prominent in his mind. Zayn laughs, and Liam hears angels singing somewhere above their heads.

“We both win,” Zayn says.


End file.
